October 2004
Cooper got up from a nap and told me that his dream was making him nervous. Then he said his tummy was going "la, la ble bla" and he made swirly motions by his tummy.
Cooper was supposed to be taking a nap but he was talking and singing. He started calling me and told me he had a poopy diaper so he couldn't sleep. I told him we'd change his diaper and then he could take his nap. He said he didn't want to go back to sleep. I asked why not and he said "I'm full of sleeping"
Cooper and I went to Walmart to get the oil changed in the car and get his 3 year portraits. We dropped the car off in the Car Center and then were starting to walk from the back of the store to the front of the store. Cooper asked me if he could walk in the store. I told him he could walk to the front of the store where the portrait studio was and then we were going to get his pictures taken. After that, we were going to do some shopping while we waited for the car and he would need to get in the cart while we were shopping. He said "Oh, that sounds like a pretty good deal!" Then he said "Baba and I make deals" (He and Grandpa T made some deals for candy when we were visiting them in September)
Cooper and Mom and Dad were eating at the cafeteria in Grand Canyon and Cooper wanted to say hi to someone. Tom said he could and they would probably say hi back. Cooper said "Maybe....or maybe not"
Cooper and Mom were driving around Grand Canyon and talking about going back to the hotel. Cooper asked if we were going home and I said no that we would head back to the hotel. He said "When we're away from my home I like to call the hotel my hotel home."
Cooper and Mom were driving around to different spots at Grand Canyon. At one point, Michelle said she needed to change his diaper in the car because she didn't want him falling asleep with a full diaper. She turned around and he was pretending to be asleep.
Cooper climbed the stairs up to the top of the Watchtower at Grand Canyon.
Cooper told me not to call him "Cooper Wooper" because only Baba (Grandpa T) can call him that.
Cooper and Tom were talking about names. Tom asked Cooper if he'd ever met another Cooper. He said he had and that they were wearing orange shirts. (He met two Cooper Abbotts in January 2004 and they both had orange shirts on).
Cooper heard Tom and me talking about going to a furniture store on Santa Fe (a street near us) and he said "Do they have choo choo tracks there?" Last weekend when we were in Santa Fe NM he walked on some old abandoned train tracks.
Grandpa and Grandma W visited us in Colorado for a few days around Cooper's 3rd birthday.
Cooper turned 3 years old today. We had a birthday party with Grandpa and Grandma W and Uncle Jeff. We had hoped to go to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo but we had a rainy day. Instead we went to the Denver Children's Museum. Cooper had fun playing on the firetruck, basketball court and also really enjoyed painting.
I had training at the Grand Canyon for about a week so Cooper and Michelle joined me. We drove from Denver and stayed the first night in Moab, UT. The next morning we took Cooper on a hike in Arches National Park. He liked the natural arches and scrambling on the rocks but wanted to be carried for the last part of the hike. After our hike we drove the rest of the way to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Cooper was very good on the long car trip. He kept entertained and also tried to keep hippo entertained (that's his viewfinder toy).
When we got to the Grand Canyon we stopped at the first scenic viewpoint. Cooper grabbed his little toy camera and went right to the rim and started taking pictures with his toy camera.
Cooper hiked 1.5 miles round trip in the Grand Canyon - 3/4 mile down the Bright Angel Trail and then back up. Michelle took a pretty big risk considering Cooper did not finish his hike earlier in the week at Arches National Park. He wore a harness. He was not excited about it but decided to wear it when given the choice of going for a hike with the harness or not going for a hike at all. Cooper hiked the whole way without being carried. He did a great job! Cooper saw a Big Horn Sheep and mules on the hike. We had to wake Cooper up from his nap that afternoon. He also slept very soundly and long that night.
We drove the southern route back home from the Grand Canyon stopping at Petrified Forest National Park, Albuquerque, Pecos National Historic Site and Santa Fe. At Pecos National Historic Site, Cooper especially liked going underground in this Kiva.
I was coaching Cooper before trick-or-treating and asked him what we would do if a house did not give us any candy. He quickly replied "I guess we'd just go to another house." He quickly caught on to the trick-or-treat concept and loved it. After he got candy at each house, he would say "Let's run to the next house!" He had a lot of fun despite the rainy / snowy weather. We woke up the next morning with about 4-6 inches of snow.
Cooper's Great Aunt Ann gave him this great dinosaur costume for Halloween. He loves the costume and has worn it many times since Halloween.
